Amnesty International criticizes Greek police

Riot police block a street that leads to the Greek parliament in Athens, on Tuesday, April 1, 2014, after authorities banned all protests in a large section of central Athens because of a Eurogroup meeting and a meeting of all European Union finance ministers. Nevertheless, some 7,500 anti-austerity demonstrators held three separate protests outside the exclusion zone, and some tried to break through a riot police cordon blocking their way to Parliament, where most marches in Athens wind up. (AP Photo/ Petros Giannakouris)

ATHENS (AP) – The rights group Amnesty International says it has found a culture of impunity and abuse within the Greek police, which it also criticizes for inadequately responding to hate crimes and attacks by far-right groups on migrants and protesters.

In a report issued Thursday, Amnesty called on the government to eradicate “a range of failures that are undermining public confidence in the police and generating a host of human rights violations.” The research was conducted July 2012-Feb 2014.

The group said it documented allegations of torture or ill-treatment during arrest and detention, including from migrants caught entering or living in the country illegally. It said victims of hate crimes have reported law enforcement officials being among the perpetrators.

Police have said all reports of abuse are investigated and deny tolerating abuses.

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